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How a NAFCM Member is Helping Ferguson

The St. Louis Post Dispatch recently released an article on the changes that have happened in Ferguson, MO over the past two years:

"Just this week, members of theJustice Department were in Ferguson to discuss progress — or the lack thereof — on the consent decree signed by “F”-word leaders and the federal government to address issues in the city related to discrimination in police and court practices.

There is a little-discussed section of the consent decree that, until recently, had been mostly ignored.

It calls for community members to resolve their disputes — with each other and police — through a mediation process. Of the many such consent decrees in the nation between the Justice Department and various American cities, it’s the first ever to mandate that a specific organization — in this case, Community Mediation Services of St. Louis — be hired to help build trust between police and members of the community by mediating disputes before they become something more serious."